Academically Adrift Analysis

English 011
Learning on College Campuses While socializing and community building is a significant part of the college life, education, as most undergraduate institutions would boast, is the most important and time-consuming part of student life in college. On the other hand, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa would disagree in their book, Academically Adrift. In their work about the “limited learning” occurring on college campuses, Arum and Roksa point out that colleges are becoming less concerned with academics, and that focus has shifted from learning to socializing. The myriad statistical examples and standardized test analyses in Academically Adrift support that undergraduate students have strayed from the traditional
According to their claim, students study less than ever before but overall have not experienced a decrease in academic performance. While students “lack academic focus,” they compensate for it through their acquired “ ‘art of college management,’ in which success is achieved primarily not through hard work but through ‘controlling college by shaping schedules, taming professors and limiting workload’ ” (4). In my experiences, I have seen such management occur frequently in high school, where time constraints are more of an issue than they are in college. On the other hand, with some exceptions, this is not the case for students at Lehigh. From our survey results of a sample of 96 students, my group concluded that 54% of students preferred a more difficult professor that teaches well to an easier professor who teaches poorly1. Therefore, the majority of Lehigh students prefer learning more material even if it requires harder work. Although 54% is just a slight majority, it nonetheless disproves Arum and Roksa’s blanket proposal that students get by with minimal effort in college. Furthermore, students at selective schools often prefer to learn independently, regarding quality of professors as less important. This accounts for the slight majority, seeing as the more autonomous learners would choose the worse professor for an easier grade, and learn the
A resource for students when it comes to learning new material is their teachers, and Academically Adrift makes this apparent when they condemn students for their lack of communication with their professors. They report that 31% of students had only met with faculty once or twice in the previous semester, and that 9% had never met with faculty. With these figures as support, Arum and Roksa state, “Given their lack of faculty engagement, these students are potentially at an elevated risk of limited academic achievement and noncompletion” (64). In a survey conducted by a group in my class, it was found that out of students taking calculus, 85% thought homework was more effective than lectures, and 75% thought textbooks were more effective than professors. Out of students in chemistry, 72% thought homework was more effective than lectures, and 61% thought textbooks were more effective than professors2. These statistics demonstrate that faculty interaction may not be as crucial in certain subjects such as math or science. Moreover, the data shows that once again, the authors’ all-encompassing statement has exceptions, especially at selective institutions like Lehigh where the students tend to do most of their learning